


Gem Cutter

by MagicRobot



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Coping Mechanisms, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Gem Collecting, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 15:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16642652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicRobot/pseuds/MagicRobot
Summary: There is a stone cupped between Knock Out’s fingers, handled with precious care even as he fiddles with it. It is iridescent in nature, creating a beautiful catacomb of light that combines with the dim lighting of their biolights in the dark, giving it a pinkish glow. Dimly, Starscream recognizes it as opal, if only because Knock Out had taken a liken to rocks in the past couple of months and had a tendency to share his interests.





	Gem Cutter

**Author's Note:**

> Another written for a prompt on my tumblr! This is meant to take place post-Breakdown’s death to give this some context.

“I think I get it now.”

The minute rumbles of Knock Out’s voice is just enough to disturb Starscream, lulled as he is by the steady thrum of a high performance engine. He doesn’t stir much from his position, draped across Knock Out’s chest in a floppy, ungainly manner - most unbecoming to the dignity he so carefully cultivated outside of their quarters. He slits an optic open, peering up at Knock Out with sleepy, peevish, irritation.

There is a stone cupped between Knock Out’s fingers, handled with precious care even as he fiddles with it. It is iridescent in nature, creating a beautiful catacomb of light that combines with the dim lighting of their biolights in the dark, giving it a pinkish glow. Dimly, Starscream recognizes it as opal, if only because Knock Out had taken a liken to rocks in the past couple of months and had a tendency to share his interests.  

“About what?” says Starscream. He has a feeling it has something to do with the opal because everything nowadays tends to revolve around Knock Out’s collection. Patience is not a virtue that Starscream is intimately familiar with, but he tries his best to keep his voice light. If picking up shiny organic matter is what made Knock Out happy now, then Starscream is content to leave him to it. 

“Why the fleshies covet these so much.” 

Starscream knows from Knock Out’s ramblings that the humans considered such objects precious and valuable, praised for their rarity as much as their beauty. He’d seen some of it first hand, from the rare radio interference of diamonds being sold for inordinate amounts of money. They were just rocks to Starscream, and perhaps more than a bit to Knock Out, who would swear that they did not hold the same level of fascination to him. What he did was pure hobby and habit - more to do with the novelty of the matter, as he so often insisted. Cybertron did not have the sort of pressure nor materials for such enigmas. The closest equivalent had been the Crystal Gardens at Polyhex, carefully crafted and cultivated by hands, rather than luck. Still, a fixture of beauty that outweighed anything that Earth would ever be capable of creating. 

Privately, Starscream knows that Knock Out uses his interest as more of a partial excuse to be off the Nemesis, something which Starscream could wholly sympathize with. 

Knock Out places the piece of opal next to its new companions on the side table; three smaller pieces of its brethren, several small slivers of turquoise, and a lucky, and very lovely, glittering amethyst stone. In the desert, the gems seemed so common. Knock Out often spent hours pilfering through the sand, his finish uncharacteristically pitted and smeared by the time he returned, but a wide and endearing smile spread across his face with his new cache in tow. A sacrifice that he is continuously willing to make.

“And why is that?” Starscream’s voice is mussed slightly as he begins to doze once more. He’s content to let Knock Out continue; it’s not about him listening, anyway, more about Knock Out filling the silence of the room in a way he perceives as pleasant. 

“The other day I was reading,” Knock Out’s cadence is lofty, as if he were perusing some ancient, important tomes and not speaking of the human creation known as the Internet. Starscream just manages to swallow his laugh, more than familiar with its pimative wiles. 

“They believe that each one holds a special meaning, some even say that certain ones have magic properties. Like they’re Gods or something.” Knock Out snorts, dismissive, yet not cruel. His hands fall to Starscream’s wings, petting at the metal in short flicks that send pleasant waves through their sensors. They twitch into the motions, in unconscious, instinctual, reflex. Starscream rumbles in a way that would be considered embarrassing, if the warmth of relaxation had not so thoroughly consumed his frame. 

“Wouldn’t surprise me if the humans worshipped them like such.” Content as he were, it takes Starscream an unlawful minute to realize that Knock Out is still talking, and even longer to recognize the biting cynicism as a joke.

He barks out a laugh into Knock Out’s plating, a little too loud in the otherwise silent room. So long had it been since he’d heard Knock Out speak in such a way that it catches him completely off guard. It’s a good feeling, and he lets himself get carried away. He glances briefly at Knock Out once he calms himself, who grins down at him. 

“That does sound plausible.” A pause. “Imagine that, though. Magic rocks.”

Knock Out snorts, giving one last stroke to Starscream’s wings before settling them somewhere on his lower back. Starscream fries not to desperately mourn the loss. “Yeah,” says Knock Out, absent minded. “Silly squishies.”

**Author's Note:**

> I did some (very) minor research for this and it turns out that opal, torquoise, amythest, and a couple other gems are actually quite common in the Nevada desert.


End file.
